Opera Scotland

Opportunities to enjoy opera online

The current coronavirus pandemic has us all in self-isolation and enduring huge frustration of various kinds.

But it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and the crisis has brought opera fans one major consolation, that of access to a large number of free-to air streamings or recordings of opera. Many of the offerings are for a limited period, but we are told that new operas are to be made available while the crisis lasts.

Covid-19: The 2020 coronavirus pandemic

It was made clear on Monday, 16 March that all meeting places of any significance throughout Scotland - from pubs, restaurants and sports stadia to concert halls, theatres and opera houses - would forthwith be closed, and for a significant duration.

Amid this chaos fell the handful of performances of the new staging by Scottish Opera of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Not only was the Dream cancelled, but also the subsequent productions of The Gondoliers and Utopia Limited. The concert...

Progress on website

The team behind OperaScotland has been asked many times to consider expanding the range of entries to cover some non-operatic works with vocal content. These would include concert items performed by important artists who did not appear much, if at all, in opera in Scotland.

Looking for a speaker?

Iain, Peter and Stephen Fraser, co-founders of OperaScotland and researchers into Carl Rosa Opera, offer organisations such as Probus and Arts societies the chance to learn about the origin and development of this website and the influential life of Carl Rosa.

Controlling mission creep: how do you eat an elephant?

At OperaScotland, team members have been very anxious to avoid ‘mission creep’; there is so much history to tackle - from 1755 onwards, and perhaps earlier - that it always seems a struggle to focus on what is relevant. As the answer goes, we have to eat an elephant a mouthful at a time.

Having scoured different sources to come up with cast lists, we have become aware that every entry we make represents a considerable opportunity cost. Every time we enter a cast we could have to think in terms of an hour or more.

Musicals

Obviously we think mainly in terms of operas performed in Scotland. However, content could be not just opera but also works ‘carried out by opera companies’. So recently when Opera North brought Kiss Me, Kate to Edinburgh we found ourselves posting data. Other musicals have been placed on the site from time to time, as have the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. But the thought of identifying and listing all perforances of 'Messiah', for example, makes us feel queasy. Surely life is too short for this.

Look out for more information as time goes by… Please tell your friends about us.

We continue to post all the information we can about performances past, present and future. One day, we hope to have listed the date of first performance in Scotland for all the works above and more...